LIMERICK City and County Council has confirmed that it terminated a multi-million euro contract with a French company that was supplying an IT system to fire services across the Munster region to improve 999 response times.
Systel Ltd has also lost multi-million euro contracts with Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service in the UK and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) after it allegedly failed to deliver on project plans or meet target milestones.
Staff at the Munster Regional Communications Centre (MRCC) in Limerick City, which receives 999/112 calls and mobilises fire services across the province, threatened strike action last year after reporting problems with Systel’s ‘Command and Control’ platform.
Some of the issues reported by staff included dropped calls and issues accessing maps.
Limerick City and County Council, which is the contracting authority for the rollout of Ireland’s fire services command and control systems, said it has also binned plans to roll out Systel’s system nationally.
Sources said €10million has been spent on the system, however Limerick City and County Council said it was not commenting on associated contract costs.
The Council said it has begun “procuring a new replacement system” and had no comment to make about costs “while this commercially sensitive process is ongoing”.
It added that said the decision to “terminate” the Systel contract was approved by the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management (NDFEM), a section of the Department of Housing, Local Government, and Heritage.
“Limerick City and County Council, in consultation with the NDFEM’s Management Board, has recently made the decision to terminate the development contract with Systel Ltd, meaning that the decision has been made not to migrate the platform nationally,” the Council stated.
“However, Limerick City and County Council continue to maintain a commercial relationship with Systel Ltd and will continue to operate and support the platform in the Munster Region for the coming years.”
The Council said it had scheduled meetings with Systel “on how Systel will continue to operate and support the platform in the Munster Region” during a transition period to find a new supplier.
The Council said a “Services Command and Control platform provided by ‘Systemes et Telecommunications SA’ (Systel Ltd) has been successfully in operation in the Munster Region since October 2021”, and that Systel has “successfully processed in excess of 60,000 calls to the services control room” at the MRCC.
It said Systel was a software company based in France for over 35 years “with a strong focus on public safety, employing more than 100 people and providing Integrated Communication Control Systems and Computer Aided Dispatch to more than 60 Fire and Rescue Service clients spread across France, England, Monaco, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Republic of Ireland”.
The Council refused to say why it had specifically terminated Systel’s contract. When pressed for a reason, it replied: “Limerick is the contracting authority for the national project.”
In September 2022, a four-year delay emerged in rolling out Systel’s Command and Control software in Scotland, in a €10million deal with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, which the SFRS initially put down to the Covid pandemic.
However, last December, the SFRS issued a statement on its website that it had “terminated its contract with suppliers Systel”.
Last March, Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service advertised a tender for a £4.5million contract to replace the mobilising services contract it had given to Systel.
Leicestershire stated that the initial term of the contract to Systel SA would expire on October 31, 2024, with an ability to extend to October 31, 2026, “which has not and will not be exercised by the Authority”.
Leicestershire stated that Systel had been “placed into administration in France and has applied to the French courts for protection”.
It said it intended to procure a new system from “Motorola Solutions UK Ltd, for a term of five years with a maximum estimated value of £4,500,000.”
The National Mobilisation and Communications System (NMACs) wrote to staff at the MRCC last May, informing them of a decision by Limerick City and County Council, NMAC, and the NDFEM to terminate the Systel contract.
The letter, seen by this reporter, stated: “Recently, the NDFEM Board became aware that Systel Ltd had been taken into a process of ‘Redressement Judiciaire’ (a form of administration) through the French courts”.
The NMAC letter stated it was seeking to extend a 24-month “Termination Assistance Period” within the Systel contract “to provide a period of reassurance during the timeframe judged necessary for NMACs to procure a new system to support fire mobilising on a shared services basis”.
“Systel Ltd remain an operating company and the system remains fully operational, supported and maintained in the Munster Region, however we will not at this point be fully migrating the system to either of the other two regions,” the letter stated.
It added “the appropriate business continuity arrangements are being auctioned to ensure a robust and reliable system of work remains in place with our legacy systems”.
A Systel spokeswoman said the company would not be making a comment.
